Distance travelled –  92 km
Avg speed –  17.6 kph
Max speed –  40 kph

Fraser Range Sheep Station to Balladonia Roadhouse

It was cold and rained lightly during the night and we woke to light drizzle. Fortunately there was a large covered dining area next to the station’s well equipped camp kitchen so we were able to get out of the rain and have breakfast. As we loaded our bikes the weather began to clear and in the hour before we left we both ‘hummed and haaed’ about what to wear for the day. At one point we dressed in our cold weather riding gear and then changed into warm weather clothing, then added jumpers and finally left wearing our warm weather clothing. As it turned out this was the correct decision as within the next hour all the cloud had burnt away and we were left with brilliantly blue skies, temperatures in the mid 20s and …… southeasterly winds.

Traffic was very light and most of the road train traffic was heading west with very few road trains going east.

There was very little diversity in the country we travelled through today with low undulating woodland all the way. Over the 90km to Balladonia we dropped 200m but the constant undulations made it feel more like an uphill ride than the downhill run it actually was.

To break the monotony we both reverted to our iPods. After lunch I was listening to an interview with Grant Page who has the reputation of being one of the most fearless movie stuntmen in the world. I first came across his name when we mastered a DVD for Screen Sound Australia for the 1970’s movie “Man from Hong Kong”. It was a James Bond send up starring George Lazenby. Grant was explaining how much more dangerous it was for him to get from home to work than actually doing the stunt itself. He argued that in stunt work he can control all the variables but when driving in traffic not knowing the driving ability or the state of mind of the approaching drivers created such a high risk that if it was a stunt no stuntman would do it for a job. As if on cue, as Grant was explaining this, a semi trailer driving towards us crossed the centre line and drove towards us before returning to his side of the road. This was a deliberate piece of ‘dickhead’ driving designed to rattle us and definitely highlighted Grant’s point. We must say that this is the first time we have experienced this and is in contrast to all the other trucks that have passed us. Only an hour earlier we had commented how much friendlier the truckies are on the Eyre Highway with many waving and sounding their horns as they pass. We just hope we are off the highway when our ‘dickhead’ driver does his return trip.

I am voting the Balladonia Roadhouse caravan and camping park as the least appealing we have encountered on our journey.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

Looking back 25km east of Fraser Range

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